Quiz 5Check what you have learned from Grammar Lessons 1-4 and Phrasebook Topics 3-4 with this 20 minute quiz.

Test 1Check what you have learned from Russian Letters and Sound System section and Grammar Lessons 1-4

Грамматика
Nouns in the plural (1)

1.

Nominative Plural of Nouns

Это лампа.Это лампы.

Nominative singular is the main form of nouns and adjectives (nouns and
adjectives given in dictionaries are in the nominative singular). You have seen
the nominative singular of nouns in sentences like: Это лампа. - This is a lamp;
Это учебник. - This is a textbook.

From this lesson you will learn how to say: These are lamps; These are textbooks,
i.e. how to make nouns plural. Remember the rules below.

To form the nominative plural of most masculine and feminine nouns
replace the nominative singular ending by -ы for hard stems and -и
for soft stems.

Hard stem

Singular -> Plural

Soft stem

Singular -> Plural

Masculine

журнал - журналы

музей - музеи

magazine(-s), museum(-s)

словарь - словари

dictionary(-ies)

Feminine

лампа - лампы

песня - песни

lamp(-s), song(s)

дверь - двери

door(-s)

Plural ending-ы-и

To form the nominative plural of neuter nouns replace the nominative
singular ending by -а for hard stems and -я for soft stems:

Hard stem

Singular -> Plural

Soft stem

Singular -> Plural

Neuter

письмо - письма

ружьё - ружья

letter(-s), gun(-s)

платье - платья

dress(-es)

Plural ending-а-я

Notes

Hard stem masculine nouns have zero ending (no ending), so we simply add -ы
to form the plural (in other words, we replace zero by -ы):
журналØ -> журналы.

A soft stem is a stem that ends in a soft consonant. The letter ь and
the vowel letters я, е, ё, ю, и indicate that the preceding consonant is
soft. If there is no one of these six letters at the end of the stem, we assume
that the stem is hard.